Ricciardo targets Singapore domination after Friday sweep

Daniel Ricciardo admits he is targeting "a dominant weekend" at the Singapore Grand Prix after setting the fastest time in each of Friday's two practice sessions.

Red Bull had identified the race in Singapore as one of its best opportunities to challenge Ferrari and Mercedes this season, and so took power unit penalties in Italy to give itself a better chance of success. While originally the team was hoping to be close to the top two and potentially in the mix for victory, Ricciardo says his performance on Friday has left him wanting to dominate.

"It was a good day," Ricciardo said. "I want to continue like that for tomorrow and Sunday – I believe we can. A dominant weekend is what I am after. It has been a good start. I know the challenge tomorrow. We will be potentially be stronger than Ferrari and Mercedes, but I am confident that we can stay there."

Saying he feels he "absolutely" has a good chance of securing pole position on Saturday, Ricciardo is further encouraged by the potential he feels in the car and by his race pace.

"We made some progress from this morning. Even if we were quickest this morning, I was still wanting more from the car and we found another step. I think we can find yet another half a step.

"Yes, the long run, surprisingly we did quite a few laps. I think we can still improve it, but still with the package we have it is pretty good."

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Max Verstappen finished second in FP2 and played down the half-second gap to his teammate, saying he didn't set a comparable time.

"We all know that Daniel is very, very quick here," Verstappen said. "My fast lap I had to abort because [Romain] Grosjean had spun and there were yellow flags and I couldn't use the DRS, so it made no sense to continue. There's still some lap time to come, also fine-tuning the engine a bit, because we weren't on top speeds today compared with the other cars. We'll see what happens."